Frontier Partisans stalwart Lynda Sanchez scouted up this piece of news: The 19th Century cavalry service of one of the great pulp storytellers of the 20th century is being commemorated in appropriate style.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ great-granddaughters, Llana Jane Burroughs and Kathy Bonnaud, unveiled a monument Sept. 27 to the Tarzan and John Carter author’s cavalry service at the Willcox, Arizona, train depot where the author arrived in May 1896.
Monument to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ cavalry service dedicated in Willcox, Arizona
As I wrote in a post more than five years ago, in a world sliding into the Plague Years:
Burroughs lays a stronger claim to Frontier Partisan lineage than just about any other writer. The man chased The Apache Kid while serving as a cavalryman in the Arizona Territory in the 1896. That’s right — while Frederick Russell Burnham was dueling with the Matabele in Rhodesia, Burroughs was riding the rough country chasing an Apache outlaw ghost. He was the real deal.
Apaches And Martians — A Frontier Partisans Tribute To Edgar Rice Burroughs
Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars starts with Confederate veteran John Carter attempting to escape and evade Apaches, hiding in a cave. The cave is some kind of portal — he falls asleep to awake on Mars.
Long before he became Ben Edwards in the Terminal List universe, Taylor Kitsch was John Carter in a mis-handled Disney film, John Carter, that was better than its marketing campaign. Lynn Collins played Dejah Thoris…
It’s great to see Burroughs’ service commemorated, and to be reminded that the American pulp heritage has roots on the American frontier.
patrulje says
Like the answering machine at the beginning of each Rockford Files episode, I always enjoyed ERB intro describing what fictitious adventure he was on. Maybe in an alternate universe he continued down a wilder path from his Cav days and those adventures were not so fictious.
Matthew says
I tend to think Burroughs experiences in life is why his fiction works even despite itself. A lot of people regulate Burroughs to either “trash” or “children’s literature.” (As if there was something wrong with the latter.) Burroughs had his faults as writer but A) all writers do and B) he had his virtues too and his works were often greater than their parts. A lot of people complain about his reliance on coincidence and it can be unrealistic that in The Return of Tarzan where everyone sort ends up in the same part of Africa, but it is also an improbable coincidence that in the Great Gatsby Daisy runs over someone who just happens to be her husband’s mistress which sets off a train of events that lead to Gatsby being shot in a pool. Yet, for some reason that book is supposed to be “the perfect novel.”
One of the things I’ve noticed about the frontier days is how many people lived interesting lives. It really was an era of adventure (with the good and bad that implies.) It also led to a ton of great adventure writers. Burroughs was one. Arthur Conan Doyle was another. So was H. Rider Haggard. These intern gave birth to the likes of Howard and Tolkien.
deuce says
Sabatini–an estimable student of history–stated that ‘coincidence’ is FAR more common than some believe. Others have pointed out that a belief in Providence DEMANDS that ‘coincidence’ happen from time to time.
JimC says
Like Sacagawea running into her long-lost brother in the vast landscape of the Great Plains. That would sound contrived in fiction, but it happened.
Lynda A. Sanchez says
Thanks Jim and I am passing this link on to others who don’t get your Newsletter.
It was a grand event and Frank Puncer organized the entire weekend. Ten years ago he did the same for a beginning dip into ERB as cavalryman on the Arizona frontier. And that short time of about a year or so influenced his work for the remainder of his life. Most people have not even heard of the two Apache novels but I have read both. Some material there regarding the “lost Apaches” or those who did not surrender and he did his research for that era, Bourke and Davis. plus his own experience.
Happy Autumn to all. Lynda
deuce says
THANK YOU, Lynda!
lane batot says
….And two of ERB’s lesser known novels are some of my favorites–“Apache Devil” and “War Chief”. He certainly knew his Apache lore and history from his own experiences as a young man, and his two Apache novels are more accurate than most pulp novels of the same subject. No matter what his critics said, Burrough’s just knew how to write an ENTERTAINING story, and he was rather tongue-in-cheek whenever mentioning his critics, and he definitely laughed all the way to the bank! Which is why he started writing in the first place–failing at just about every other career choice he’d made previously. He began his writing career after reading some of the stories in pulp magazines that were popular at the time, and commented that he could write better trash than what he was reading! So began one of the most popular and successful writers in American history!
Quixotic Mainer says
Awesome stuff!
Like L’Amour, I think Burroughs’ work smacks more of truth no matter how fantastic due to using learned life experience.
As a longtime adherent to Captain Carter’s adventures, I thought that Disney take was a good attempt deflated by too many “modern audiences” tweaks. It needed swordplay of the Bob Anderson variety in the worst way. Though Miss Collins did make a great Dejah!
JimC says
This is right on the money. Exactly why I cast a wary eye on “modern take on a classic tale.”
deuce says
Agreed. You should read JOHN CARTER AND THE GODS OF HOLLYWOOD by Michael D. Sellers.
Wayne says
I wanted a John Carter movie sequel so badly!
Ugly Hombre says
My Pard Joe who was a ERB fan since a sprout was big on the ERB fan sites and fanzines- he could not fathom why some were trying to turn Lord Graystoke into a vegetarian pacifist in some of their writing- trying to turn Tarzan into a “Woke” Ape-Man so to speak. It got so bad that one of the Woke Ape-man promotors were actually going to track Joe down and give old Joe a thrashing. lol go figure..
Any way Joe told me that Tarzan in his Lord Graystoke mansion and persona actually had a Chinese Cook from north China who was a kung fu master on the side and who taught the Viscount “Monkey Kung Fu” The “Tai Hsing Pek Gwar” aka the great sage hand ax system.
Tarzan being raised by monkey apes learned all five Monkeys the sneaky, the wood, the lost, and the drunk as hell monkey which was his favorite.. He learned it in record time as Tarzan was raised by big azz gorilla monkeys..
I dunno how Joe found that out he had a lot of esoteric info and weird artifacts and carried on a pen pal relationship with a African witch doctor for a long time that’s maybe where he got it.
JimC says
Love this….
Ugly Hombre says
Yeah Joe was quite a Character gone now- his wife found a Mekong whisky bottle with a 3 step Krait snake in it behind some books in his huge library she hollered and told me to get it the hell out of the house. lol. He really did have a witch doctor pen pal that Joe connected with via some “white hunters” he was friends with in Africa. Joe was a artist and did a painting of the Hoo Doo man and later got some supernatural advice from him that spooked Joe pretty bad. Loved to listen to him he worked for Lemay and met JFK on a flightline. Years in Thailand and Korea.
I forgot the Tall Monkey in the story.. five of them there are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XO4UKNGwo
I think every kid should read ERB and R.E.H. keep um’ from going soft and set them on the right path.
I did not like the John Carter Disney movie much Joe did though much to my surprise- he had a Deja Thoris statue on his end table.
Great thread Jim thanks!
deuce says
“I think every kid should read ERB and R.E.H. keep um’ from going soft and set them on the right path.”
Indeed.
Wayne says
For some great nostalgic Tarzan fun, hunt up a copy of Tarzan Alive by Philip Jose Farmer. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Ape Man and much more.
deuce says
Let’s not forget that ERB owned an estate in HAWAII when that was still a TERRITORY.
Ed SAW Japanese planes fly overhead on their way to Pearl Harbor. He immediately reenlisted, becoming the oldest US Army war correspondent of World War Two. At least once, he was on a navy vessel within sight of a kamikaze attack. Once again, a frontier partisan.